 Crac des Chevaliers fort - one of world's most important still-standing medieval castles |
From Damascus all imaginations, if not necessarily all roads, lead eastward to the mammoth Crac des Chevaliers, the Castle of the Knights. Syria has only 183km of Mediterranean coastline and the only natural break in the mountain range that runs along it, from Beirut in Lebanon to Antakya in Turkey, is the strategic Homs Gap, where sits the imposing Crusader castle that so entranced a 20 year old T.E. Lawrence that he is reputed - acting out every schoolboy's dream of his day - to have climbed its outside wall barefooted. You don't have to take your shoes off to appreciate Syria - all that's needed is a willingness to be astonished at every turn.
Built from basalt and limestone in the 12th century to garrison thousands of troops, The Crac ders Chevaliers has thirteen towers, and inner and outer walls separated by a moat. Though not long in the possession of its builders (who eventually handed it to the Turks and went home), it was famed throughout the warring world as an impregnable edifice. From its ramparts now, on a quiet day between tour groups, when sole occupancy is a not unreasonable delusion, it seem as if the known world could lay futile siege for a year without dislodging a stone.
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